An untethered cable-driven ankle exoskeleton with plantarflexion-dorsiflexion bidirectional movement assistance

Tian-miao WANG; Xuan PEI; Tao-gang HOU; Yu-bo FAN; Xuan YANG; Hugh M. HERR; Xing-bang YANG

doi:10.1631/FITEE.1900455

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An untethered cable-driven ankle exoskeleton with plantarflexion-dorsiflexion bidirectional movement assistance

Special Issue on Intelligent Unmanned Systems | Updated：2022-05-19

- An untethered cable-driven ankle exoskeleton with plantarflexion-dorsiflexion bidirectional movement assistance
- 可实现跖屈–背屈双向运动辅助的绳驱动踝关节外骨骼
- Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering Vol. 21, Issue 5, Pages: 723-739(2020)
- Affiliations：
  
  School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing 100083, China
  Shenyuan Honors College, Beihang University, Beijing 100083, China
  School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100083, China
  MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA
  Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100083, China
- Author bio：
  
  Hugh M. HERR, E-mail: hherr@media.mit.edu
  Xing-bang YANG, E-mail: xingbang@mit.edu
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1631/FITEE.1900455
  CLC： TP242.6
- Received：30 August 2019，
  
  Revised：2020-;4-30，
  
  Published：2020-05
- Accepted：
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Tian-miao WANG, Xuan PEI, Tao-gang HOU, et al. An untethered cable-driven ankle exoskeleton with plantarflexion-dorsiflexion bidirectional movement assistance[J]. Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering, 2020, 21(5): 723-739.
DOI：

Tian-miao WANG, Xuan PEI, Tao-gang HOU, et al. An untethered cable-driven ankle exoskeleton with plantarflexion-dorsiflexion bidirectional movement assistance[J]. Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering, 2020, 21(5): 723-739. DOI： 10.1631/FITEE.1900455.

摘要

下肢外骨骼辅助机器人广泛应用于运动辅助或康复训练。因绳驱动外骨骼具有良好人体顺应性且更加轻便，研究人员研发出一系列绳驱动样机辅助踝关节运动，但其中大多数只能辅助单向运动。本文提出一种可穿戴绳驱动踝关节外骨骼机器人，该外骨骼机器人使用一对单电机分别实现两侧踝关节跖屈-背屈双向运动辅助。该外骨骼主要重量（即电机、供能单元和控制单元）置于人体近端（即腰部）附近，以减少作用在穿戴者下肢的附加转动惯量。设计了基于齿轮-滑轮组件的绳索力传输系统，有效地将动力从电机端传递至末端执行器；设计了动力输出单元中的自张紧装置，用于实现穿戴者行走过程中绳索的张紧；设计了基于足底压力传感器和惯性测量单元（IMU）的步态检测系统，可有效识别步态周期和步行状态。为验证外骨骼动力输出性能，进行力矩跟踪实验。在受试者佩戴该外骨骼并提供主动辅助力情况下，比目鱼肌活动与未佩戴外骨骼状态相比降低5.2%，从而验证该外骨骼的力辅助作用。本文研究表明，该轻型绳驱动外骨骼机器人在人体运动增强或康复训练中具有潜在应用前景。

Abstract

Lower-limb assisted exoskeletons are widely researched for movement assistance or rehabilitation training. Due to advantages of compliance with human body and lightweight

some cable-driven prototypes have been developed

but most of these can assist only unidirectional movement. In this paper we present an untethered cable-driven ankle exoskeleton that can achieve plantarflexion-dorsiflexion bidirectional motion bilaterally using a pair of single motors. The main weights of the exoskeleton

i.e.

the motors

power supplement units

and control units

were placed close to the proximity of the human body

i.e.

the waist

to reduce the redundant rotation inertia which would apply on the wearer's leg. A cable force transmission system based on gear-pulley assemblies was designed to transfer the power from the motor to the end-effector effectively. A cable self-tension device on the power output unit was designed to tension the cable during walking. The gait detection system based on a foot pressure sensor and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) could identify the gait cycle and gait states efficiently. To validate the power output performance of the exoskeleton

a torque tracking experiment was conducted. When the subject was wearing the exoskeleton with power on

the muscle activity of the soleus was reduced by 5.2% compared to the state without wearing the exoskeleton. This preliminarily verifies the positive assistance effect of our exoskeleton. The study in this paper demonstrates the promising application of a lightweight cable-driven exoskeleton on human motion augmentation or rehabilitation.

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references

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